Bitcoin trail, Google cookies and Uber Eats orders help tie man to Steam malware

This underscores a major issue with commercial software like Steam and games obtained therein. You cannot trust that software not to maliciously scan your device for secrets such as crypto wallets or other information. Ideally, you want to run apps like Steam, Discord, Zoom and whatever else does not come from a trusted distribution repo as a separate user. This is not always convenient however, and the compromise I adopted on my gaming PC is to bubblewrap Steam. Do not mount things like /home and devices games should not be using in the sandbox.

Criminals should have used Monero.

Victims should have not keep crypto on desktops. They are much less secure than Mobile.

He was smart/determined enough to risk it all. Why didn't he just try find a job that pays $200k/year ? Why play into the stereotypes ?

I heard Monero can help against blockchain analysis (though less so if you buy from adversaries). Unfortunately it looks like blockchain analysis was not the attack vector here, but rather buying gift cards through an incompetent intermediary.